The LNER Encyclopedia

In advance of building a 7mm layout of/or based on Seahouses station I'm researching the Branch and would be grateful for any little snippets of information forum members may have to fill in some blanks. I've got Alan Wright's book and have collected quite a lot of pictures and articles. On this forum 52D has been particularly helpful.

Any help greatly appreciated

There has been an NSR layout on the exhibition circuit, and I think it and/or other layouts have featured in the Gauge O Guild "Small Layouts" books. These might be useful to see how other people have tackled it. Volume 1 is a free download for members from the GOG website. Volume 2 is still in print.


Richard

Hi Richard.

I am a member of the Guild and have both those layout books. I also know of and have a few photos of the Seahouses layout you mention. In fact I've been in touch with a very nice chap who used to operate it at shows. It is lovely but it's not 100% accurate - though it does give a great impression of the location and I hope my eventual effort is half as convincing.

I'm looking for all the bits and bobs of stuff as well as anything operational/technical. How the fish was brought up from the harbour? Who the main local trades people were? What changes did wartime create? etc etc... all the detail.

Hi In the history of the line it seems as though the first passenger vehicles were converted for stone carrying from Pasture Hill quarry. I can recall when i walked the formation in the late sixties the track bed appeared to widen around a point parallell to the quarry and in discussion with a local historian we both commented on a possible interesting alighnment towards the quarry. There may have been a branch around about the wide alighnment up to the quarry (in reality a glorified siding rather than a full blown branch). To get the whole truth we need to get the Time Team in.
I know the vehicles were converted but dont know if the sidings went up to the quarry or stone was brought to the widened lines for loading. At this moment a quarry branch is conjecture until we can find further evidence, but would make an interesting modelling detail.

I waked the branch in 1978 and although there was little to see I took a few shots of Chathill station, see here http://www.flickr.com/photos/pinzac55/3 ... otostream/ Click on the right hand thumbnail in the the top right corner to see the next and subsequent shots.Also here http://www.flickr.com/photos/pinzac55/2655195699/ .
The only thing I saw was the remains of the old water tower with a gigantic white puffball mushroom near it. It would have made a superb preserved line!

You should have got the puff ball they are good to eat, among other good remains are some of the bridges and North Sunderland platform. Did you notice the crossing layout it spanned the two ECML tracks and a third from the NSR side yard. When i walked the line all that plus the goods shed was still in existance.

I burst the puffball and it was full of purple liquid - I think I might never have reached Seahouses if I had eaten it lol!

Did you ever make it to Seahouses? I'd love to see similar photos of the Seahouses site.

What a lovely station Chathill was/is

That Puffball sounds a bit magical

Yes I did get to Seahouses but I didn't take any photos sadly.There was an article in Backtrack on the NSR a few years ago - did you see it?Also I am sure you know the Tanfield Railway has the "twin" to the Lady Armstrong but did you know they have (or had) the sole surviving NSR coach body? It was lying in "kit form" on the southbound platform in the mid 1990's but I think they had no plans to reassemble it and it may have disappeared now.

PinzaC55 wrote:Yes I did get to Seahouses but I didn't take any photos sadly.There was an article in Backtrack on the NSR a few years ago - did you see it?Also I am sure you know the Tanfield Railway has the "twin" to the Lady Armstrong but did you know they have (or had) the sole surviving NSR coach body? It was lying in "kit form" on the southbound platform in the mid 1990's but I think they had no plans to reassemble it and it may have disappeared now.

This is all new to me. Thank you very much. I must investigate Tanfield.

I don't suppose anyone has a scan of that Backtrack article?

I thought I had the Backtrack article in my dungeon but I have had a quick look for it and can't find it - I will look again.
If you haven't checked out this authoritative site, do http://www.northumbrian-railways.co.uk/ ... nd-railway

Thanks PinzaC35 appeciate if you can find it

PinzaC55 wrote:I thought I had the Backtrack article in my dungeon but I have had a quick look for it and can't find it - I will look again.
If you haven't checked out this authoritative site, do http://www.northumbrian-railways.co.uk/ ... nd-railway

Hi there - just to let you know I already have this article. I got it from 52D a few weeks back.
I thought you meant another article - my fault entirely and I hope you haven't gone to any trouble in your dungeon.

Any other snippets on Seahouses greatly appreciated though - especially non-railway stuff

Couldn't find the NSR article so I must have binned it.BTW have you got the original Oakwood Press book?

Yes I do thanks